data.alberta.ca

This afternoon I was invited to participate in the first of three Mayors’ Caucuses being held by the AUMA.  This first group of Mayor’s were representing communities of 2500 people or less.  I was on a panel with Mayor Jerry Iwanus (@bawlfbomber) representing the Village of Bawlf Alberta and Grant Ainsley of Grant Ainsley Inc., a media and management consultant from Edmonton.

I found our experience to be fascinating albeit too short, and yet, it was great to hear Jerry and Grant provide their perspectives.  What I found even more fascinating was the group of Mayors and their questions.  Grant asked how many of the audience was on Facebook and I’d say nearly 75% put up their hands.  This is a good sign.  When it comes to twitter however, only three folks not including myself identified themselves as being micro-bloggers.

65 minutes!

There were questions about time commitment, what tools to use, how to engage regionally via the social web but actually the most fascinating question was really more of a statement for the record by a Mayor, who’s first name was Barb, I didn’t catch the name of her community but she wanted to raise the issue about ambulance response times being nearly 65 minutes in her community.  Essentially, she explained that Alberta Health Services AHS had cut services which affected her region.  Now if you’re a citizen having a heart-attack first responders “can give you an IV and an aspirin while everyone waits for the ambulance,” said the Mayor.  When Barb asked if any other communities were experiencing similar service reductions other hands definitely went up.  Are you kidding me? What are we doing in this province?  We’re not broke, why are we operating as if we’re a developing country when it comes to essential services?

AUMA’s President Darren Aldous who is also the Mayor of the Village of Breton, Alberta said that the good folks at the AUMA will be submitting the formal written communications on this issue to the Government of Alberta and AHS which is great.

So much could be done

However, here’s where social technologies could play a direct role in terms of communications in a case like this.  While paper is being submitted through formal channels, towns and villages with small councils and little in the way of resources could be leveraging other means to get the word out, gather support and consensus and get things moving.  Of course, my head jumps to Open Data and how if only the province moved immediately towards releasing a data catalogue people could start creating value-added services that could help these hard-working folks and the citizens in their communities.

I’ve said before that Premier Stelmach and his administration need a CIO who could then align with the Open Data Movement here in Alberta and launch something real (instead of a broken link) - data.alberta.ca.

We need more sites like what Gisela Hippolt-Squair is doing over at the Alberta Geological Survey

Without providing specifics on my ideas here, there’s no doubt that lives and services could be improved in rural Alberta nearly overnight.

Imagine your family member waiting while having a heart-attack for 65 minutes just to have an ambulance arrive and the only reason, as explained by Mayor Barb, is due to funding cuts…it’s absolutely shameful.  Just because you’ve chosen to enjoy this great province in a rural setting shouldn’t mean you also dramatically increase your chances of dying because of it.  Rural Alberta, indeed rural communities in general simply get little to no respect.

I’m excited that there’s more to learn during two additional social media related panel sessions tomorrow with Mayors from medium and large communities.  Expected to be in the room are provincial MLAs…Hmmm, this is going to be fun.